A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small, Tennessee town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later. As I grew up, I never questioned his place in our family
In my young mind, each member had a special niche. My brother, Bill, five years my senior, was my example. Fran, my younger sister, gave me an opportunity to play “big brother” and develop the art of teasing. My parents were complementary instructors—Mom taught me to love the Word of God, and Dad taught me to obey it.
But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries, and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours each evening. If I wanted to know about politics, history, or science, he knew it all. He knew about the past, understood the present, and seemingly could predict the future. The pictures he could draw were so lifelike that often I would laugh or cry
He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bill, and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies, and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars. My brother and I were deeply impressed by John Wayne in particular.
The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad did not seem to mind. But sometimes Mom would quietly get up while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places, go to her room, read her Bible, and pray. I now wonder if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave.
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My dad was a teetotaller who did not permit alcohol in his home-not even for cooking. But the stranger felt that we needed exposure, and he enlightened us in other ways of life. He often offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages. He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished.
He talked freely (probably much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I now know that my early concepts of the man-woman relationships were influenced by the stranger.
As I look back, I believe it was only because of the grace of God that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time he opposed the values of my parents. Yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave. More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our young family on Morningside Drive. He is not nearly so intriguing to my dad as he was in those early years. But if you were to walk into my parents’ home today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and look at his pictures. His name? We always just called him T.V.
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